Friday, June 10, 2005

Computer Use Begins Even Earlier!

Computer users are getting younger - the latest statistics: 67% nursery school students use the computer (23% are on the Internet), 80% Computer 32% Internet by Kindergarten. By the time kids are first graders, it's 91% Computers and 50% Internet.

2 comments:

Our son was attracted to our computer at age 1 and learned to use a mouse and play at nickjr.com and disney. Our daughter was a 'slow learner' she started around 2 years of age.

Both kids were motivated to read by GameBoy and Gamecube. Now they are both excellent readers and their attention is only held so long by electronics. (Not true for toads and dolls - they can play woth them for hours.)

Isn't that amazing. At 4, our son improved his spelling because doing Internet searches (didn't take kindly to invented spelling). Our kids have also fluctuated with their computer use over the years and are avid readers. Early computer certainly isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in the generation M (Media) report, the highest youngest kid video game players also read the most books- but of course there are a number of reasons for this.

Early computer kids may be more autonomous learners at young ages -and that could be good for some things and bad for others. Regardless, it will probably change the teacher-kid and parent-kid dynamic over time.